'Fanny said I had better speak to you. This poor fellow is in a
dreadful state.'
'Algernon!'
'No, indeed. Poor Hope! What has possessed the girl?'
'Genevieve has not refused him?'
'Did you not know it? I found him in his rooms as white as a sheet!
I asked what was the matter, he begged me to let him go away for one
Sunday, and find him a substitute. I saw how it was, and at the
first word he broke down and told me.'
'Was this to-day?'
'Yes. What can the silly little puss be thinking of to put an
excellent fellow like that to so much pain? Going about it in such
an admirable way, too, writing to old Mamselle first, and getting a
letter from her which he sends with his own, and promising to
guarantee her fifty pounds a year out of his own pocket. 'I should
like to know what that little Jenny means by it. I gave her credit
for more sense.'
'Perhaps she thinks, under the circumstances of her coming here,
within the year--'
'Ah! very proper, very pretty of her; I never thought of that; I
suppose I have your permission to tell Hope?'
'I believe all the town knew it,' said Albinia.
'Yes; he need not be downhearted, he has only to be patient, and he
will like her the better for it. After all, though he is as good a
man as breathes, he cannot be Gilbert, and it will be a great relief
to him. I'll tell him to put all his fancies about O'More out of his
head.'
'Most decidedly,' said Albinia; 'nothing can be greater nonsense.
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